groups of housemaids on an evening outingcompared employers, teenagers roller-bladed.gathered around litter-bins, smokers exhaledmushroom-puffs. in the energy of orchard road,a tourist giraffed his neck to take a pictureof a sculpture fronting a mall - a necessary souvenir of his unnecessary visit.

standing near, a woman, anxiously awaitingan unacquainted colleague, was within rangeof the man's lens, but not the focus.

soon as he had clicked, a tap on the shoulder.a passer-by: want me to take a picture of you both?

baffled, his camera taken; led to wherethe woman was. at the same time, she,thinking he was that colleague, stepped forward.to the samaritan's call, the man turned round;then both froze and smiled.

the passer-by had thought they wereman and wife and a silly sculpture.

embarrassed laughter, a drink at the sidewalk.they chatted - he of taiwan and she of k.l.,here on a conference. then, pauses became longer,the conversation thinner. there being nothingmore plangent, each left the other two.

the samaritan to further deeds;the man back to photographing another souvenirwithout fetching up another instant wife;and, she, back in her hotel, was amazedthat marriage was the blinding speed of a shutter.